Growling at PayPal

19 Oct 2009

We signed up for a PayPal account ages ago and never got around to using to process payments (we’ve got a merchant facility with CommBank so there was no great urgency to the situation) – and since setting it up the person responsible has moved on.

Our unverified account has never processed a single payment, and yet with the amount of ID they require for something as simple as a contact name change you could get a passport in some countries.

Business Contact Name Change
To process your name change request, you need to fax in additional information. Please provide a current photo identification and one of the other following documents:

• A copy of a valid photo identification showing your new name.
• Acceptable forms of photo identification are a driver’s license, passport or any other state or government issued photo identification.
• A copy of a recent utility bill showing your new name and address exactly as they appear on your PayPal account.
• A copy of a recent bank statement for the bank account listed on your PayPal account (if applicable).

Please include a letter on company stationery indicating the primary email address, current name, address and telephone number on the PayPal account, the reason for the name change, and the new business contact name.

So that we can process your request efficiently, please ensure that your documents are valid and legible. As always, any personal identification information that you submit to PayPal will remain secure and will never be transmitted to any third party.

PayPal have never had a rep as a particularly customer friendly organisation, but this isn’t even beneficial to them! With no transactions in the past and less documentation than this required for establishing a NEW account it doesn’t pose any credible threat so far as hijacked accounts/money laundering/whatever goes, and they need to spend time reviewing documents sent in a thoroughly nonstandard way. The bank account verification process is pretty good in terms of automation (albeit risky – you’re essentially giving PayPal license to do whatever with all funds in that account) – this is most certainly not.

Anyone have any good, low % fee or cost/transaction way of hooking into CBA’s Evolve system? The application doesn’t warrant us spending heaps setting it up just yet, and PayPal are good at making things way too risky and difficult. Grumble.